King Lear (King Lear)

“Who is it that can tell me who I am?” (King Lear 1.4.218)

King Lear is the eponymous main character of Shakespeare’s King Lear. A king in the twilight years of his reign, he decides to estimate which of his three daughters deserves which parts of his kingdom. Throughout the play, King Lear slowly alienates everyone close to him and slowly succumbs to insanity.

King Lear is one of fiction’s greatest representations of a long-term mental breakdown. He can be interpreted in many ways, whether it is an insane despot, a ruthless dictator, or a tired old man, but they all conclude in a similar way. He is man who has known nothing but power his entire life, and as that power starts to leave him at the end of his life, he starts to internally crumble. The power that he likely used to define himself is starting to dissipate, and the daughters he thought he controlled through this power lose interest and affection for him almost immediately. As the play goes on, he slowly turns in a pathetic old man stumbling around in the rain, with only his court jester to keep him company. King Lear is a perfect showing of a complete fall from grace, and shows what kind of identity crisis a typical evil king archetype should be subjected to.